Sticking Guages

[lipso]

I've had my 94 carina e 1.6 petrol for 7 years and fairly regularly the dashboard fuel guage and temp guage needles stick and then return to normal with no pattern to it - could last 30 mins, a few hours, half a day or 2 days. The only thing that seems to happen is if I get a tank fill of petrol then this usually frees the fuel guage and also the temp guage as if they are interconnected?

The latest episode started on Thursday and still hasn't returned to normal so I'm getting worried that maybe something is finally kaputt? I don't like not being able to keep an eye on the temp guage because she is losing coolant rapidly but no leaks are visible and she drives same as always?

[gazza1286]

If you are loosing coolant and there are no visible leaks then its probably the water pump.

It could possibly be the head-gasket. If so you would normally see whitish mayo residue on the inside of the oil filler cap.

Do a search on the forum. there are loads of posts about the water pump. the temp guage problem could be the sender unit. But this could be a red herring. Get the coolant loss problem sorted before anything else.

The fuel guage problem could be either the dash or the sender unit in the tank.

[lipso]

If you are loosing coolant and there are no visible leaks then its probably the water pump.

It could possibly be the head-gasket. If so you would normally see whitish mayo residue on the inside of the oil filler cap.

Do a search on the forum. there are loads of posts about the water pump. the temp guage problem could be the sender unit. But this could be a red herring. Get the coolant loss problem sorted before anything else.

The fuel guage problem could be either the dash or the sender unit in the tank.

Thanks gazza